Various types of book holders for persons without arm mobility have been proposed, as represented by the following U.S. patents briefly discussed.
A. E. Wood--U.S. Pat. No. 1,035,290--Aug. 13, 1912 provides a framework for holding a book in front of a sitting person where the book is held in place by vertically disposed elastic bands about the book covers and the book is held open by a horizontally disposed elastic band stretched across the opened pages. This holder cannot be used by bedridden readers and the pages cannot be easily turned without the use of arms. Also, the horizontal elastic band across the opened pages interferes with visibility and need be changed in position as the pages are read.
The pages are generally held open in other book holders by differently shaped and positioned clamps for engaging separately the two opposed pages and holding them in reading position. The clamps are in most cases elastically biased for permitting use with uneven stacks of pages on opposite sides of the book. This type clamp is common to all of the patents discussed hereinafter. One problem with elastically biased clamps is the difficulty for a person without arm mobility to turn pages by fitting a page under the biased clamp. If the bias is missing, it is difficult to hold the pages open for both sitting and bedridden readers.
Some holders such as those in T. L. Million--U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,278--Nov. 7, 1961 and T. A. Graham--U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,813--Apr. 15, 1977 are portable and usable only in a table mount position. Others such as S. M. Weir--U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,709--July 15, 1975; E. G. Singleton et al.--U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,066--May 26, 1970; M. H. Torme--U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,914--June 17, 1975; P. J. Weber--U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,425--Oct. 13, 1981; B. V. Laing--U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,027--Feb. 5, 1957; and L. C. Johnson et al.--U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,573--Apr. 14, 1964 have complex mounts for attachment to beds and are generally adaptable only for use by bedridden users. The mounts make these book holders expensive and special purpose, and in most cases must be custom tailored for each bed size or style. Also they take up considerable room and are not easily stored.
It is an objective of this invention to improve the state of this art by resolving the aforesaid deficiencies and to provide an inexpensive, versatile, universally positionable book holder, which permits readers without arm mobility to simply and easily turn pages without inconvenience or outside assistance. Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be found throughout the following description and in the accompanying drawings and claims.